Automated telephone call processing systems, such as collection systems and marketing systems, should accommodate both inbound and outbound telephone calls. For outbound calls, the system seizes an available trunk line, dials the telephone number of the customer or potential customer, monitors the trunk line for an indication that the called party has answered the outbound call and, if a called party answers, connects the outbound call to a currently available agent or places the outbound call in a queue for eventual connection to a later available agent. The rate of placement of outbound calls is completely under the control of the call processing system and is determined by a pacing algorithm which typically uses one or more of the following statistics: the number of agents on duty, the number of agents available, the ring time of an outbound call before it is answered (the "set up" time), the historical probability that a call will be answered (the "hit rate"), the number of calls placed and/or answered and/or waiting and/or on-hold, the time that a called party is on-hold waiting for an available agent, the time that a called party is connected to an agent, the time and/or day of the call, etc. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,829,563 and 4,881,261 disclose two predictive dialing methods.
Pacing algorithms are intended to maximize agent efficiency by reducing the time that the agent is idle between calls. Ideally, a called party will answer an outbound call just as an agent is completing an earlier-initiated transaction. However, variations in individual calls can result in agents being underutilized, such as waiting for an outbound call to be answered, or being over utilized, so that a called party must wait for an agent to become available. Because a called party typically has a low tolerance for being placed on-hold, the pacing algorithms are typically biased so that a called party is not placed on-hold or is placed on-hold for less than a predetermined time. Of course, this sometimes means that the agents will be underutilized.
Inbound calls present a different type of problem. The rate of occurrence of inbound calls is random and is not under the control of the call processing system. Typically, statistics will be gathered and a minimum number of agents for handling inbound calls will be identified. This minimum number of agents is selected so that the idle time is minimal and the on-hold time for a calling party is typically less than some predetermined acceptable value. A calling party will generally tolerate a longer on-hold time than a called party.
If too few agents are used then the duration of the on-hold time will frequently exceed the tolerance of the calling party, which can lead to dissatisfied or lost customers. If too many agents are used then the idle time of the agents will increase, the efficiency of the agents will drop, and the cost of doing business will increase.
Statistics can be gathered on inbound calls and predictions made as to the number of agents required for handling inbound calls at any designated time and/or day. However, the mechanics of staffing and training for the agents may present problems, especially for part-time and/or off-hour duty positions to handle peak loads.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and a telephone call processing apparatus which accommodate both inbound calls and outbound calls and respond to the total inbound and outbound call volume by adjusting the pacing of outbound calls and/or the pacing (answering and connection) of inbound calls so as to minimize the idle time of all agents and the on-hold time of called and calling parties and to maximize the utility of the telephone trunk line.
Furthermore, the nature of inbound calls is generally different from the nature of outbound calls so the duration of the calls is different. Therefore, there is a need for call pacing algorithms responsive to whether an individual agent is handling an inbound call or an outbound call.
In addition, if a system accommodates both inbound calls and outbound calls then the system must separate the trunks into inbound trunks and outbound trunks so that inbound calls do not occur on outbound trunks and vice versa.